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103In Georgian traditional polyphonic music the dominant scale system is the “FifthDiatonic Scale”. This scale dominates in all branches of western Georgian music, and inmost of the musical genres of eastern Georgia as well. In eastern Georgian “long” tablesongs the presence of this scale is obvious only under the central tone (pedal drone)(Gogotishvili, 2003).The “Fourth Diatonic Scale” system in Georgia is more regionally restricted. Inits pure form it exists only in solo monophonic working songs of eastern Georgia. Inpolyphonic songs it exists in “long” table songs of eastern Georgia, but only above thecentral tone (pedal drone). Therefore, eastern Georgian table songs have a veryinteresting mixture of different – “fourth” and “fifths” - scale systems, “working” aboveand below the tonal centre (tonal centre in these songs is expressed by the pedal drone).Melody in polyphonyMelody is popularly known as the “soul of the music”. We may have all heardcomplaints how the music is losing the beauty of the melody, or even worse – losing themelody per se.Analyzing Georgian traditional polyphonic songs, I came to a very strange (forme, and schocking for some of my Georgian colleagues) conclusion, that Georgianpolyphonic songs are not built around the “main melody” of a song. Even such brilliantsongs as “Chakrulo” or “Khasanbegoura” are not built around the main melody. That’swhy, for example, you cannot sing the melody of “Chakrulo”. The musical textureconsists of more than one melodic line, and none of them carries the important functionof being the main melody of a song. Georgian polyphonic songs are usually built onrelatively short musical phrases that can be the same in many different songs. Of course,there are Georgian songs that have their own distinct melodies (to name only a few:“Chela”, “Imeretian Rider’s Song”, or “Iavnana”), but the majority of the most complexpolyphonic songs have no one leading melody. The song is usually a combination of allparts and not the one leading melody accompanied by other parts. The combination ofthese three parts represent the “soul of music” in Georgian polyphonic music. I guess afew representatives of other polyphonic cultures would agree that in their cultures alsothere is no such thing as a “main melody of a song”, and rather that the combination of allparts delivers the main musical idea of a song.Unlike polyphonic traditions, in monophonic cultures the melodic line of a song isusually strictly personalized and represents the very soul of the music.Singing men and singing womenGender differences are one of the great subjects of traditional music (and not onlymusic). The subject is so vast that at some point I was thinking not to tackle this subjectin this book at all. (As a matter of fact, as I am writing this text, in another study NinoTsitsishvili is working on a book mainly dedicated to this incredibly interesting andimportant subject in Georgian music). At the same time, to avoid this theme completelywould not be fair. At least, we should remember that Alan Lomax wrote about theincredible importance of women’s singing and women’s role in society for the origins ofcohesive group polyphonic singing in traditional societies, so it is obvious that we cannotavoid this question. So in just a few words I want to discuss this subject in regards toGeorgia.